Illiterate
by AdrenochromeDreams
Summary: Caitlyn finds out a little secret she should have never known. One-Shot (Vi x Caitlyn)


It was late. Most of the police officers were done with their tasks and got ready to leave- and so was Vi. Stretching her sore back she sighed in relief and looked around the office. Briefly she glanced at her workspace and huffed. Compared to the others who left their desks cleaned up, hers was a complete mess, cramped with unfinished reports of the day.

When the pink haired rebel was offered to work at Piltover's police department she had no idea that police work meant much more than dragging criminals into arrest cells; Paperwork, filing reports, phone service and other crap were part of her duty as well. And god, she hated it! A fleet glance met the current form in horror, she managed to scribble her NAME into the fitting area. Watching her superior at work gave her a bit of a clue, but the rest was like a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. All those numbers and - symbols, letters? Vi could tell at least numbers apart from the rest, she wasn't that stupid! Numbers had always played a major role in her life. They stood for money; That was all she needed to know growing up on the streets.

To hell with it, she thought with a sneer as she rose from the chair and stretched her body like a lazy cat. Caitlyn would do it, she couldn't stand chaos anyway and probably would stay late to fill out her forms. For a second, guilt washed over her senses and Vi let out a deep sigh as she shuffled over to the hatrack and grabbed her jacket. She couldn't help it, right? No need in doing tasks that were beyond her understandings.

"Hey, anyone of you going to the hangout later?", she asked while putting on her leather jacket and zipping it.

"Yeah, you wanna join?"

Vi's face lit up with a wide grin. "No need to tell me twice man! I could need a beer for sure! Let's go then!" Whistling happily she reached for the keys inside her pocket and joined the group of her co-workers, ready to roam the streets of Piltover. It could have been SUCH a nice evening having fun. But well, the woman barely reached the door when she heard a bang behind her and that familiar scolding tantrum.

"Officer Vi! Into my office!"

"Oh man, what is it this time? I want to go, you stupid old frump…" It was only Vi's luck that her curse was just a whisper behind clenched teeth.

"NOW!"

The tall fighter flinched and her eyes went around helplessly, looking for any support. One of her co-workers only grinned and waved before he took off, leaving the female officer behind.

Vi turned on her heel and ruffled her hair dreadfully. Being called into the office was never a good thing, never ever. She could already imagine the reason she was pulled into the meeting after work, probably the damage she had caused in the heat of combat was to blame for. Stupid criminals. No, stupid police. Did they really think that someone would stop running away once you yelled "FREEZE"? Thinking about her past, Vi used to give a flying damn about freezing when she was told to.

Her steps echoed eerily in the empty office, only the stand by lights of personal computers accompanied her, blinking like traffic lights. Instead of stomping in like last time, the tall woman collected herself, cleared her throat and knocked silent enough so most wouldn't have been aware of it.

"Come in!"

Oh man. Her Superior's voice greeted her like an icy gust of wind and that made the officer even more uncomfortable in her skin. Sheepishly she closed the door behind her and inhaled deeply to keep up her tough façade.

"What's up?", she asked with a smile which crumbled at the sight in front of her. The Sheriff had turned her back on Vi. Not good.

"- Cait?"

The addressed woman turned around, a huge stack of papers in her hand. No word was spoken while she made her way to the chair. Eerie silence.

"So, you ordered me into your office because-?"

Vi couldn't even finish her sentence. The Sheriff glared at her and tossed the papers violently onto the desk, a loud bang tore the silence.

"THIS. All of this! Vi, seriously? Blank reports of two, i repeat, two months!"

The pink haired woman cringed and bit her lower lip.

"Here at the department, EVERYBODY has to fulfil their duties and you are no exception! So, would you be so kind to explain why all your paperwork is neglected?"

Blue eyes stared right through lavender colored hues in front of her, demanding an answer right now. Vi's gaze dropped at her feet, fidgeting with her jacket's zipper her thoughts raced a mile per hour. How could she get out of this?

"I don't know how this works, Caitlyn! You have the routine in filling forms so I thought you could do it, you know?", she dared to step closer and put on a smile, "You are the brain, I am the punchline, ok?"

Vi had a feeling that her superior wouldn't laugh at her intended pun, and she was right. She watched Caitlyn regaining her posture, rolling her eyes and tossing strands of dark hair over her shoulder.

"Not. Funny." came the dry retort with a gesture towards Vi to sit down. She followed suit with a mumbled "sorry".

"Vi. The point is following. Everybody that works here, has a certain form of responsibility towards their job. And so do you! Sometimes you work on cases where I am not present and I need your point of view written down!"

"But I don't understand any of the forms!" the pink haired woman was close to shouting but kept the volume down to a decent amount, her stomach churned umpleasantly. Caitlyn sighed. "So tell me, WHAT is so hard to understand about them?"

Showing signs of cooperation, Piltover's sheriff picked up an empty report and shoved it into Vi's direction, handing her a pen and waiting in silence she rather felt like a mother helping her child doing homework. This was odd.

Vi felt awfully attacked and confronted as she gripped the pen with more force than intended. She gritted her teeth and noticed her shaky fingers, cursing at herself to chill the fuck out. Pointing at a blank field, the pink haired woman started to stutter. "-This. What does this mean?", she asked, her voice almost cracked. Caitlyn bent over and arched a brow in confusion. Was the criminal armed?

"Vi, what's so hard to understand about this question? You were there, you are supposed to know if the opponent was armed or not!"

"A-armed? Oh. Okay. I-I'm dumb, okay? Deal with it, Sheriff!

Caitlyn looked up with narrowed eyes and huffed in annoyance.

"Sometimes, that feeling gets to me. Tell me, are you acting dumb on purpose or-"

She stopped in her sentence and watched Vi turning pale and shaking all over as she rushed off the chair noisily. Was she angry? "Vi, what's the matter?"

"YES, you got me! I. Am. Dumb! Satisfied? I can't read what's on here for shit!" Her fists landed on the table and Vi earned a dumbfounded look. "Don't look at me like a damn cow, you heard me!"

It clicked in Caitlyn's brain while she prefered to overhear the recent result. The newest fact about her partner settled in violently as she watched Vi's cheeks getting wet. She-

"Wait. You can't read? Vi, you could have… oh, Vi…"

Gone was the professional posture and the strict superior. Almost jumping over her table, she rushed close and pulled out a handkerchief. Gently she began to dry Vi's tears of anger of frustration, her counterpart was unable to move since she didn't expect that kind of reaction. Swallowing hard, she just let it happen. It was so surreal. Of course Caitlyn had an affectionate side to her personality which was rarely shown, but this was just overwhelming- not only to her, but also the Sheriff.

"I'm sorry for calling you dumb. I did not mean to", the superior whispered and tucked the handkerchief away. Her thumb brushed over Vi's cheek, removing new tears that emerged from her colleague's eye. It should have been so obvious, how did she miss all of the little signs?

Caitlyn's thoughts raced and she began to remember small things. Vi's handwriting when she signed papers. These two letters looked rather like a kid's drawing but then, the sheriff never had any suspicion that the pink haired woman only copied them the best she could. At another event it was Caitlyn reading things to her, like menues or newspaper articles because Vi would hand them to her due to laziness. That woman was smart enough to avoid reading or writing, hell, she tricked a whole police department into doing such things to her. In fact, Caitlyn was amazed over that amount of creativity and wit - but also sad that her partner did not trust her enough to open up.

The silence built up between these two characters inside the office. In the end, it was the sheriff picking up words. "You are anything but stupid. You were clever enough to trick all of us, I have to give you that."

Her hand lingered on Vi's cheek, caressing skin to comfort her. "Are you feeling better now that you don't have to hide this anymore?"

Vi exhaled shakily, the churn inside her guts made her feel like throwing up any moment. No, she did not feel better, in fact she felt incredibly bad and stupid. Defeated. And embarrassed by dropping her guard like this, bawling like a child in front of her partner AND boss. But she couldn't help it, the tears had a life on their own. They just wouldn't stop falling.

"Am i fired?", she whispered after a while only to say something at all.

Caitlyn shook her head and offered a smile. Not a plastic smile she sometimes wore, no. It was honest, with so much warmth and feeling that it gushed over Vi like a wave.

"No. You're not. Vi, you are so talented and capable of things. Being illiterate won't stop you from working wonders. Besides", she paused to look into her companion's eyes, "I'm here to help the best I can. We'll find a way. Okay?"

"Okay."

Vi sniffed and managed to smile awkwardly.

"Thank you, Cait."


End file.
